Group C
England v Denmark
Frankfurt Arena
Frankfurt, Germany
20 Jun 2024
The official tournament programme covered all of England's Group games and the Knockout Phase up until the Semi Final and was very good quality with 98 pages of gloss and colour
ESTC tickets for this game were in plentiful supply with a final allocation of 10167 with 2387 available as Fans First tickets priced at 30 Euros. A total of 13494 members had pre-registered for this game but many had picked up tickets in the UEFA ballot or from touts/3rd party ticket sites
The Frankfürt Arena (Waldstadion ) is home to Eintracht Frankfürt and has a retractable roof. It has a normal capacity of 58000 and is the 7th largest stadium in Germany, although for the Euros this has been reduced to 47,000
The stadium has played host to many tournaments, including 5 games at the 1974 FIFA World Cup, 2 games at Euro 88, 4 games at the 2005 Confederations Cup and 5 games at the 2006 FIFA World cup including England v Paraguay on 10 Jun. During Euro 24 it hosted 4 Group games: Belgium v Slovakia (0-1), Denmark v England (1-1), Switzerland v Germany (1-1) and Slovakia v Romania (1-1). It also hosted the round of 16 match between Portugal and Slovenia (3-0)
Pano
Marc Guehi makes his Free Lions front cover debut following a solid performance at centre half in the win against Serbia
Attendance: 46,177
Day 1: Immersion into the Maintal Ost and Sachenhausen
After a very slick train journey on the ICE from Aachen to Frankfürt Flughafen and then a sprint to change for the regional train to Maintal Ost, we arrive seamlessly at our destination. On arrival at the small village station we are met by our host who kindly drives us to our clock tower home
Entering the tower💀
After climbing the ancient steps into the tower we arrive at the lounge area. Sue even has a saddle for a stool
The next floor is the bedroom which is exceptionally comfortable, just don't mention the bells
The walk to the station at Maintal Ost takes about 10 mins and passes through the old quirky Hochstadt
Frankfurt is only 20 mins on the train and on day 1 we head to Germany's Apfel Wein district at Sachenhausen on the south bank of the river Main
Apfelwein with traditional 4 er jug
The food is gorgeous, for starter I have the local "Handkas" (with music), which is a type of cheese with chopped onions marinated in oil, vinegar and apfelwein then placed on a bed of rye bread. For mains, I had the straw fed pork ribs with apple sauce, sauerkraut, horseradish and mashed potatoes. Sue had the Roast Pork with dark beer sauce served with spaetzle👍👍👍👍
All the diners are here for the Germany v Hungary game but first up was the Croatia v Albania 2-2 draw
The bar
The Danes are all supping near the river bank at Sachenhausen but where are the English?
Here we are 😁
The Sachenhausen vibe
Its a great atmosphere but not much room to manoeuvre
Inside or outside 😒
So we head off the beaten track to a small Kniepe nearer the station, now we're talking
We pop into the nearest Kniepe to Sud Frankfurt Bahnhof for a night cap. This bar is called 'Sternche' ⭐
The local cult drink is called ' Mispelchen' and it is an amber coloured drink made from Calvados with a medlar (a small apricot type of fruit) dunked right in it
The first night ends well and home before 0200Hrs
Day 2 - Matchday in Frankfurt
A view from the tower
Frankfürt in the distance
Regional train from Maintal Ost to Frankfürt Hbf
The Römer (Town Hall) looks nice decked out with the flag of St George
The Old St Nicholas Church is a medieval Lutherian church and has (no doubt) seen it all before. To the left is the Schwartz Stern/Black Star restaurant
To the left of the Fountain of Justice is the Great Angel of the Römerberg, Europe's oldest exchange house (15th century)
Roaming aimlessly sucking up the atmosphere
Time for a livener
Sanctuary 🤗
Pröst
Derby in Frankfurt
More and more fans just keep on coming
Probably not the best day for tourism
Give it up for the leopard adidas sandles👏👏👏
The Eisener Steg is the Iron footbridge spanning the river Main connecting Frankfurt with Sachenhausen, built in 1868
Sue with the Emperor's Cathedral in the background
Eisener Steg
The 'Floating Pitch', where we stopped to watch a very unfair game of English 10 year olds get a good thumping from a team of Danish 15 year olds💩
The fanzone was on the banks of the River Main (Mainkai) and stretched from the Eisener Steg to the Main Stage at Friedensbrucke with loads of LED screens and stages
Main Stage at Friedensbrucke
Time for refreshments at the Konig Bistro Bar opposite the main station
If Carlsberg did Bar Maids😇
Dez the Fez popping in to say hello
Frankfurt Station and the journey to the stadium in the forest
Danish and English fans mixing in the sun
OK, lets find Entrance 5
The chimes of "Don't take me home" ring around the concourse as we make our way in
Not a bad view in Block 38B, row 20
I've even got my own waitress 💖
The atmosphere is building, we lav it
All set for the national anthems
GSTK
The view to our left
To the right
The Danes behind the goal
Lining up for the anthems
15 minutes in and England have started well, what could possibly go wrong?
At HT a reunion with Bish
Mac has escaped from the rig and Rob Lyndsey survived the camper van endurance event through Spain, France and N Europe
After a disappointing 1-1 score line we head off for a bit of post match shenanigans
But not before bumping into Bahrain Harry
So it is back to the Sternche with Bahrain Harry, Colin Ware and Stamford Ian. Oh and there is a guest appearance from Heike a member of the German Supporters Fan club
Colin and Ian - Derby's finest
Suzie Sioux’s demeanour changes half an hour from when this photo was taken when she realises that we've got on the wrong train at Frankfürt Süd. In fact we got on the ICE train from Frankfurt to Hamburg and the first stop is Gottingen, a meagre 2-3 hours away. And the journey back home wasn’t much better!😱
Day 3 - Recovery and Frankfurt sightseeing. After a lengthy stay in bed following the previous night’s nonsense we get back to Frankfürt to complete our tourism objectives. First up is the Old Opera House (Alte Oper) in the financial district. Built in 1880 but destroyed by allied bombing in 1944
I had pre booked tickets for Main Tower just a short hop away
Last night is soon forgotten 😎
The views of Frankfürt are incredible
Frankfürt baby 😎
Well worth the 9 Euros
Translated from German:
“ On May 10, 1933, on this spot national socialist students burned the books of writers, popualists and philosophers.
As a reminder to all, on the outside of the circle it reads:
“That was just foreplay so,
where they burn books,
do you end up burning people too?”
Walking in the rain to the Emperor’s Cathedral where many Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire were crowned
The Storm on the Römerberg
After getting on the correct train back to Maintal OST we decided to celebrate by popping into the Dorfschänke for an Apfelwein and a glass of Binding pilsner
We get acquainted with the friendly locals and end up having bit of a laugh with some very giggly Germans
The land lady is an Eintracht Frankfürt super fan
As we leave the village for the last time we say a heartfelt goodbye to the Dorfschänke (village tavern)
Farewell Medeival Tower, Hochstadt
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